Lily Evans: The Not So Pure Witch
by Celestia0909
Summary: "As she stares at the canopy of her bed, thinking about the evening past, she was right. It had gone one of two ways indeed; after all she'd seen something rare. Even if she did now harbour a vendetta against unicorns - especially the purist ones at that."


**Lily Evans: The Not So Pure Witch**

* * *

"This is mad," Lily whispers as she tightens her grip on her wand and flinches as a twig snaps somewhere behind her. She feels the light drops of rain splashing on her skin, and she looks up only to see the illuminated canopy of trees above her. "We shouldn't be out here."

In hindsight, agreeing to come out to the Forbidden Forest after curfew was probably a bad idea. Especially considering the fact that they'd been told to do the exact opposite only hours ago, on account of the threat of Death Eaters lurking. Oh, and maybe also because going into a forest with the word 'forbidden' in the title is kind of asking for trouble.

Had it been any other person, any other day, and honestly any other time of the month, she would've told him to piss off. But, when your boyfriend, whom you would give up an arm and a leg for, tells you it'll be fun, it's hard to say no. Especially when he promises that she'll see something she's probably never seen before.

Thinking about it now, this could go one of two ways really.

Either he's going to try and feel her up when they eventually stop walking, or he's actually telling the truth about seeing something rare and beautiful.

She's going to put her money on the former.

"Why'd you come with me then?"

"I dunno!" _Because it's exciting_, she thinks. "You said it was something important!"

"Come on, Lily, you've known me for how long?" he mutters to himself quietly, and she sees his fingers counting. "Almost seven years?"

She crosses her hands over her chest, partially because of a slight chill, and also because she's getting ready to go on a defensive, "Yeah, so?"

"So, can't you tell the difference between me lying, and me telling the truth?"

She's stumped - because he's absolutely right.

From the moment he'd sidled up next to her during dinner, Lily _knew_ that James was going to rope her into something dangerous and, or, mad. But maybe it was because of the treacle tarts in front of her, or the fact that she'd heard about his standing up for a first year Slytherin that was being bullied. Either way, she'd said yes willingly.

Worse even was the fact that the prospect of doing something against the school rules was even _exciting._

"Christ alive, you're such a bad influence."

"What?" He feigns shock, but she catches the smirk on his face.

"We've been going out for what?" She does the maths in her head. "Three months, and you've already got me doing this bollocks, you prat."

He chuckles and Lily rolls her eyes as he slings an arm around her. "I reckon we're probably two of the worst Heads of school, yeah?"

"Honestly, we really ought to turn our badges in tomorrow."

"Don't be daft, Evans, d'you really want to forfeit access to the Prefects' bathroom?" He pinches her shoulder lightly and Lily's cheeks heat up.

_No. _Of _course_ she doesn't want to give up access to it; not least of all because the bath scents were amazing.

"Shut up, Potter." He laughs and she wants to join in when a flash of white in front of them catches her eye. "What was that?"

"What was what?" His head darts towards the direction of her eyes, and he frowns. "I don't see anything."

Lily squints and looks in the general direction of the flash, hoping to catch another glimpse of it. She couldn't have imagined it, a flash of bright white was so completely out of place this far into the forest. The only things that ventured in this deep were Hagrid's acromantula friends, and the Centaurs.

"There was something over there." She raises her wand and illuminates the tip of it, pointing it in the direction she'd seen the flash. "Something white."

"Something white?"

"Yeah, it was bright, and sort of glowy?"

She recalls the one time she'd seen a similar light source, but it was impossible for those creatures to be in these forests. Unicorns couldn't possibly survive here in Scotland.

"Right. Well, why don't we go and find it then?"

"Are you mad! We can't!"

"Why not?" James removes his arm from around her shoulder and takes a few steps in front of her. His wand light illuminates his face, and Lily can't miss the adrenaline and excitement on his face. "Didn't I promise to show you something you'd never seen before?"

"I suppose so, but what if it isn't a unicorn?"

"Then we run like hell." His voice is light and excited, and she knows he's trying to stop her worrying, but worrying is what she does best. The smile on his face fades for a moment and concern clouds his face. "You don't need to worry, we'll be _fine_."

"I'm not going to do it."

"Come on, Evans, don't be a wimp."

"You can't bait me into it, I'm going back to the castle."

James shakes his head and brings his hands up to form chicken-like wings underneath his armpits. "Don't be a chicken, Lil."

"I swear I'll hex you." He doesn't answer, and instead begins to cluck like a chicken. "You're such a prat." His clucking gets louder and she forces herself not to crack a smile. "Not doing it."

He walks circles around her, clucking and flapping his arms. When she doesn't budge, he scratches the ground with his feet and pretends to peck her, his clucking growing louder.

It _would_ be fascinating to see unicorns in the wild - not like the tame ones that Professor Faunacular had brought in for class that one time. And besides, when would she ever come this deep into the forest again? When was the next time she'd ever get a chance to see a real unicorn so close?

"If it isn't a unicorn, and it attacks us, I'm going to push you in front of me," her voice was stern and she places her hands on her hips. She's partly joking and partly serious.

"So we're going?"

"I mean it James, if it isn't a unicorn and I die or something, I reserve the right to haunt you until the day you die -"

"Stop being so dramatic," he interrupts her and rolls his eyes.

"- and if you ever get married, I'll just hover beside you and give you awful relationship advice."

"Yeah yeah, alright fine. If you die, you can be the Peeves to my McGonagall."

_Approximately thirty minutes and twenty-one seconds later…_

"Look, it's coming this way!" James whispers excitedly as he points towards the smallest foal trotting towards them.

Its' hide, in comparison to the other foals, is the brightest gold and almost pops out of its' dark surrounds. In fact, the entire herd of unicorns glows against the darkness, and for the third time in her life, Lily is truly in awe.

Unlike the domesticated and tamed unicorns that Professor Faunacular had brought in to show their class in third-year, whose hides and manes were dull, these wild grazing beauties before her were positively luminescent, their white hides were almost blinding to her eyes.

"Should we move away?" Lily whispers back as the golden foal inches closer towards them, its' ears twitching as it sniffs along the ground.

"No, let's stay and see what it does."

Unlike many of the other creatures in the forest, the unicorns are considered to be the least dangerous of all. They were docile, good-spirited, and ethereal, she remembers their Care of Magical Creatures professor remarking at how they have never been recorded to strike at humans. Although they prefer the presence of women to men.

"Maybe you should shuffle back a bit," she tells James.

He nods and scuttles a few feet away from her, just as the unicorn foal stands still in front of her.

Even during the class on unicorns in third-year, she'd never _actually_ been so close to one; let alone close enough to feel its breath on her skin. Her hand itches to stroke the foal, but remembers that she ought to wait until the creature bows its head to her before doing so.

Even though the foal has no horns, it's still more powerful than a full-grown plough horse.

"Hello," she whispers softly, smiling as the foal's tail twitches. "You're beautiful."

It tilts its head and Lily gazes into the creature's eyes.

She's never seen anything, human, creature, or otherwise with eyes as beautiful as this foal's. They are the exact same colour as the sky on a bright summer's day, with hints of silver and gold dotted around the edges. They are reminiscent of a crystal ball she'd once walked past in a shop in Brighton.

But apart from being unnaturally beautiful, the foal's eyes also gaze at her with curiosity and wonder. She knows that they're intelligent creatures, and she feels almost unnerved as it scans her face and slowly edges closer to her.

She doesn't know how long it looks at her, but eventually it huffs and reaches its' neck forward to smell her face. The foal smells her for quite some time and she begins to feel somewhat self-conscious. Stupid, she knows. What does a unicorn know of human hygiene?

Feeling emboldened by its' closeness to her, Lily raises her hand to stroke the animal, but flinches as it suddenly rears away from her and gallops back to the safety of the herd. A soft wind tickles the back of her neck and pushes her hair forward; and almost simultaneously, the herd of unicorns raise their heads and glance in her direction before disappearing in a flash of white, silver, and gold.

"I think we scared them off," James says, disappointed, as he stands and brushes his trousers off. "The little one was so close though, you could've touched it."

_I almost did_, Lily laments.

The walk back to the castle is uneventful and quiet, save for the occasional complaint from James about their impending NEWT's. She listens, nods, and responds, but she isn't _really_ listening to him as they exit the forest and walk across the grounds.

In truth, the only thing she's really thinking about is why the foal skittered off so suddenly.

"You're being awfully quiet," James whispers as he ushers her into the Entrance Hall. "Are you thinking about the herd we saw?"

"Yeah."

"They were beautiful, weren't they?" She nods. "Definitely don't regret a single second of it."

She hums in agreeance and silence engulfs them once more as they ascend the stairs towards the tower. Occasionally one of the paintings berates them for being up so late, but Lily ignores them and only speaks when they reach the Common Room.

"Why do you think it ran off?"

"Dunno, it actually seemed to like you too."

"Yeah, but it ran off so suddenly, like it got scared."

"Possibly, I mean it did look really young, it could barely walk in a straight line."

She nods again and shakes her robe off, sinking into the sofa next to the fire.

"Actually," James begins as he sinks into the sofa opposite her, "I do remember something that my nan told me about unicorns, probably a load of bollocks though."

"Yeah? I'd like to know." She brings her feet up underneath her thighs and grabs a cushion, hugging it against her chest. "It'd definitely save me the trip to the library."

"Swot," he scoffs lightheartedly. "Anyway, she said that her neighbour told her a myth about unicorns. She said that they _do_ prefer witches over wizards, but that they're pretty intuitive too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, she said that because they're so pure, they only like being around other people and creatures that are pure too."

"Pure?" James nods. "What do you mean by pure? Like by blood?"

"No no! It has nothing to do with being a pureblood or not, I think it means in the, uh, other sense." He rubs the back of his neck and cowers into the sofa, avoiding her eyes.

"So, pure of heart? Only the pure of heart can touch them?"

"No, nope, not that."

Lily racks her brain for an answer but comes up short.

"So then what? Pure of what?" He ruffles his hair and looks visibly uncomfortable as Lily frowns at him, this whole thing would be answered and her curiosity quenched if he just came out with it. "Christ James, just tell m-"

"_It means you have to be a virgin_! _Alright?_" He half-yells, half-seethes, out. His voice cracking, and face flush. "She said that only _they_ can touch unicorns."

This time, he's not the only one blushing and Lily almost wants to laugh out loud. Of course it makes sense that only _those_ people can touch a unicorn. Only the 'purest' of the pure can touch them, and apparently she'd long left that club. A month ago to be exact.

"Right, well, yeah okay, cool. Thanks for telling me." He nods and still doesn't look at her. "I-I should probably get to bed. Long day tomorrow."

"Yeah, same." They both get up from their seats and make their way silently to the top of the staircase, until they both head towards the doors to their dormitories and say goodnight. "Hey Lily?"

"Yeah James?"

"Just so you know, I think it's a load of bollocks."

"What is?"

"The whole, virgins are the only ones pure enough to touch unicorns bollocks."

"Okay? Thanks." She turns to enter her dorm, and also to end this conversation.

"And for the record, I reckon you're the best person I know, and that unicorn's a smarmy git for scurrying off and not letting you touch it. The little idiot's going to regret it 'till the day it dies."

The conversation is laughable if the sentiment behind it weren't also sweet. Trust him to spurt out complete, heartwarming, nonsense to make her feel better.

"You're not half-bad either, Potter." She winks at him and waves. Hand on the door handle, Lily turns back to him, "By the way, what _were_ you going to show me before the unicorns showed up?"

A sheepish smile creeps onto his face and he rubs the back of his neck for possibly the umpteenth time tonight, "Come with me tomorrow again and I'll show you."

"Fat chance of that happening. Besides if you want to feel me up, there's a perfectly good bathroom downstairs." Lily winks at him before entering her dorm and shutting the door behind her.

As she stares at the canopy of her bed, thinking about the evening past, she was right. It _had_ gone one of two ways indeed; after all she'd seen something rare. Even if she did now harbour a vendetta against unicorns - especially the purist ones at that.

* * *

**Word Count: 2469**

**A/N Word Count: 36**

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Challenges and Assignments

Gryffindor, Assignment 3

Magical Law and Government, Task 4 - Write about a creature with high intelligence

The Houses Competition

Lions, History of Magic

Round 2 - Standard, [Creature] Unicorn


End file.
